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STILL NEED A GIFT?
Everything's been wrapped and is under the tree. You're done with all your shopping, except for one, two or maybe four people.
So what do you get for that hardto-buy-for person who never likes anything? Well, as they say, a book is a present they'll open again and again, so why not head to your local bookstore for these great gifts:
AFRICAN-AMERICAN STUDIES
For the thinker on your gift list, "We Can't Breathe" by Jabari Asim might be the perfect thing to give. In essays that provoke thought and invite discussion, Asim tackles Black culture, Black families, the necessity of Black writers, and how Black America has its own narrative to claim from history. Wrap it up with this book for the poetry lover, "My Eternity in Time" by Carol Coles. It's filled with verse on love, life, and death, and it offers plenty of food for thought.
The reader who works to understand racial issues will want to see "When I Was White" by Sarah Valentine beneath the tree this year. It's the true story of a little white girl who grows up to be a woman who learns that her father was a black man. Complicated, yes. Fascinating? That, too. Also look for "Self-Portrait in Black and White" by Thomas Chatterton Williams, the story of an entire family's reckoning with race. Also take a look at "Black Indian: A Memoir" by Shonda Buchanan, a story of a biracial woman who embraces both her Native American and her African American roots.
The teenager on your list who loves history will love "Emancipated: My Family's Fight for Freedom" by Cheryl Wills. It's the personal story of Wills' father, and her great-great-great grandfather, who was a Tennessee slave who fought in the Civil War. Included is information so your young giftee can start his or her own family tree. Wrap it up with "I Missed the Bus, But I Arrived on Time" by Willis S. Drake, a memoir by a Renaissance man and his dreams of doing it all.
NON-FICTION
For road trippers, "The Vagabonds" by Jeff Guinn makes a great gift idea. It's the story often years' worth of road-trips taken by friends Henry Ford and Thomas Edison: the things...